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Meeting: Time and Date: 14.00 hours on 29 October 2012 Venue: St Mary’s Church, Church Walk, Hinckley EMAS Attendees: Phil Milligan, Karlie Thompson, Mick Jones, Louise De Groot, Melanie Wright, Louise Robinson Number of Attendees: 80 -100 ( to be confirmed) Press in Attendance: Hinckley Times

Main Topic Discussed:

• Location of the hubs

• Foundation Trust status

• Vehicles and responses to incidents

• Cost savings and possible redundancies

• Timing and attendance at meetings

Positive Feedba ck:

Main Concerns Raised

• The proposed hubs at and city are quite close together – should these be further apart? These hubs are based only in the North of , there needs to be focus in the South of Leicestershire also.

• Will EMAS be liaising with West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) to ensure new hubs and Community Deployment Points (CDPs) are in suitable areas, not all clumped very close together? EMAS will need a good relationship with WMAS in the case of a major incident.

• Leicestershire’s city areas tend to be better resourced to achieve shorter response times, but there does not seem to be as many resources in the rural areas.

• How many ambulances are running in Leicestershire & Rutland now? How many ambulances will be running after the consultation?

• Initial responses tend to be First Response Vehicles (FRVs) with an ambulance then backing the FRV up. The time between an FRV arriving at a job and the Double Crewed Ambulance (DCA) can be very lengthy; this needs resolving.

• With the introduction of hubs, it seems as if jobs will only be achievable closest to the hubs, not outside of these. What will be arranged for staff to attend rural responses when starting their shifts from the hubs? There is general feeling that staff will only be able to respond to jobs closest to hubs and will not have a chance to get to rural areas.

• Staff need to be based in areas in which they have local knowledge, not just relying on SatNavs. o With so many CDPs and hubs, staff will be more thinly spread, meaning those with local knowledge may not be based in the areas where they would be best utilised. Being the Best Event Feedback Form

• In 1980s there were nine vehicles based in Hinckley. Where will these vehicles be now? How good is the communication between staff and the call centre?

• In the new hub and CDP model, has the busy area of the A5 been taken into account? It would be beneficial to have a CDP or hub close to this as there are numerous accidents.

• The proposed hub and CDP model map does not show what stand by points EMAS currently have.

• There needs to be a resource permanently in Hinckley to attend local jobs.

• If the general response is that Hinckley requires its own hub, will this happen?

• The timing of the meeting should have been later in the evening to allow for more people to attend.

• What attendance rates have EMAS had at the public consultation meetings? The reported only two people attended one of the city meetings.

• What are EMAS’ plans to achieve Foundation Trust status?

• Unions are stating that staff are not happy with the proposed consultation. Are EMAS aware of this and if so, is the consultation still continuing even with staff negativity?

• How much money will the consultation save?

• Will the consultation lead to any redundancies?

Questions raised by staff members:

• Will there be any changes in the Paramedic role to improve the comfort of falls patients? Paramedics are not singularly able to lift a patient; there are occasions when a falls patient can be left in an uncomfortable situation for a long period of time whilst a DCA is waiting to arrive

• Ambulance drivers are legally responsible to check the vehicle they are responding in. Therefore, the use of the Make Ready teams will not be as time effective as proposed.

• Will the Make Ready teams be restocking the vehicles correctly? There has been an instance in which a crew has responded to call without a defibrillator.

Brief Meeting Evaluation:

No new questions were asked. There was obvious concern about the lack of a hub in South Leicestershire. The meeting was generally polite though there was some anger to the proposals.

Any Other Comments :

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